The Seventh Circuit elaborated Thursday on its reasoning for denying the Trump administration's request to stay a ruling blocking the deployment of National Guard troops to Chicago, noting that "spirited, sustained and occasionally violent actions" of protest demonstrators, without more, don't constitute a "rebellion" that would justify deploying the Guard.
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TOP NEWS

Protests Aren't Rebellions Justifying The Guard, 7th Circ. Says

By Dorothy Atkins

The Seventh Circuit elaborated Thursday on its reasoning for denying the Trump administration's request to stay a ruling blocking the deployment of National Guard troops to Chicago, noting that "spirited, sustained and occasionally violent actions" of protest demonstrators, without more, don't constitute a "rebellion" that would justify deploying the Guard.

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Insurer Didn't Owe Coverage To IT Co. In BIPA Violation Suit

By Hope Patti

An insurer had no duty to defend or indemnify an information technology company in a class action alleging violations of Illinois' Biometric Information Privacy Act, a state appeals court affirmed, finding that underlying events occurred before the claims-made policy's retroactive date.

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7th Circ. Affirms French Montana's Win In Copyright Case

By Bonnie Eslinger

The Seventh Circuit on Thursday backed French Montana's win in a copyright case brought by a musician who alleged the rapper sampled his instrumental song to make the hit single "Ain't Worried About Nothin'," saying there wasn't evidence to show Montana duplicated the work "as opposed to merely imitating it."

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Brief

Fans Drop Biometric Privacy Suit Against Chicago Cubs

By Jonathan Capriel

Baseball game attendees who accused the Chicago Cubs of collecting, without consent, the biometric data of millions of fans at Wrigley Field have agreed to drop their proposed class action claims against the team and others.

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Ill. Judge Tosses Law Firm's $36M Pandemic Loan Fraud Suit

By Tom Lotshaw

An Illinois federal judge dismissed a Michigan law firm's $36 million whistleblower suit against dozens of automotive dealerships, ruling that the information underpinning its claims of pandemic loan fraud was already publicly available.

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States Battle Trump Admin To Recover Solar Program Funds

By Juan-Carlos Rodriguez

Attorneys general from across the country are suing the Trump administration for allegedly violating the Constitution and federal law by canceling a $7 billion program providing solar equipment to low-income households.

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Tech Co. Gets Ex-Employee's Bias Suit Shipped To Texas

By Patrick Hoff

An information technology services company must face a Black former employee's lawsuit claiming she was fired for complaining about a supervisor's racist remarks, an Illinois federal judge ruled, but said the case should be sent to Texas based on the worker's employment agreement.

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LITIGATION

Songwriters Claim Udio AI Was Trained On Copyrighted Music

By Elliot Weld

A group of songwriters is suing artificial intelligence company Udio AI, claiming its music-generating AI models were trained using copyrighted music scraped from the internet.

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USDA Can't Curb SNAP Benefits As States Fight Data Demand

By Dorothy Atkins

A California federal judge on Wednesday preliminarily blocked the U.S. Department of Agriculture from withholding potentially billions of dollars in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefit funds from states that refuse to turn over highly sensitive personal information on millions of SNAP food assistance benefit recipients.

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PEOPLE

Trump Taps V&E's Swett As New FERC Chair

By Keith Goldberg

President Donald Trump will appoint Vinson & Elkins LLP energy regulatory counsel Laura Swett as chair of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the White House confirmed to Law360 Thursday.

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EXPERT ANALYSIS

Series

Traveling Solo Makes Me A Better Lawyer

Traveling by myself has taught me to assess risk, understand tone and stay calm in high-pressure situations, which are not only useful life skills, but the foundation of how I support my clients, says Lacey Gutierrez at Group Five Legal.

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LEGAL INDUSTRY

Ex-Trump Aide Bolton Indicted Over Classified Info Handling

By Lauren Berg

John Bolton, the former national security adviser to President Donald Trump, was indicted Thursday by a Maryland federal grand jury on charges related to the handling of classified information.

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Judge Shields Migrants From ICE After Courthouse Arrests

By Bonnie Eslinger

A California federal judge on Thursday barred U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement from detaining two asylum-seeking mothers without notice and a hearing, ruling the agency's courthouse arrest tactics likely violate due process.

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Many NY Trial Judges Elevated In Secret, Report Finds

By Frank G. Runyeon

Hundreds of New York state judges are permanently elevated to top trial courts via a secretive appointment process, according to a report released Thursday.

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Analysis

Why Ethics Complaints Against Halligan Face 'Very High Bar'

By Phillip Bantz

Interim U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan for the Eastern District of Virginia could face bar disciplinary action or court sanctions if the prosecutions she's pursuing at President Donald Trump's behest are found to be politically motivated or baseless, although proving ethics allegations will be an uphill battle, experts say.

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Ex-Va. Federal Prosecutor Joins NY AG James' Defense Team

By Lauren Berg

The former deputy criminal chief for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Norfolk, Virginia, Thursday joined the team defending New York Attorney General Letitia James in the government's case accusing her of mortgage-related fraud, filed after the president encouraged prosecutors to take action against his "guilty as hell" political opponents.

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5th Circ. Calls For Narrow Sanctions In Southwest Bias Fight

By Grace Elletson

The Fifth Circuit stood by its decision to scuttle a contempt order mandating religious bias training for attorneys representing Southwest Airlines in a flight attendant's discrimination suit, but tweaked a May panel ruling to instruct a trial court to impose "narrowly tailored" sanctions.

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Saul Ewing Asks For End To Ex-Conrail CEO's Legal Mal Suit

By P.J. D'Annunzio

Following a federal court decision upholding an $11 million arbitration award against former Conrail CEO David LeVan that stemmed from a failed Gettysburg casino project, Saul Ewing has urged a Philadelphia judge to find that LeVan is time-barred from bringing his malpractice case against the firm, in which he accused it of poorly advising him during the fallout of the collapsed deal.

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IRS Agents Lose Defamation Suit Against Hunter Biden's Atty

By Anna Scott Farrell

An attorney who defended Hunter Biden against criminal tax charges was only expressing his legal opinion when he accused Internal Revenue Service agents of illegally disclosing his client's private tax information, a D.C. federal judge ruled in dismissing the agents' complaint for defamation.

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Analysis

Kirk-Related Visa Revocations May Rub Against Court Rulings

By Britain Eakin

The Trump administration's revocation of visas from individuals who criticized Charlie Kirk after his death raises First Amendment concerns that could run up against a recent federal court ruling holding that noncitizens have the same free speech rights as U.S. citizens.

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Bannon Tells Justices Legal Advice Dooms Contempt Rap

By Cara Salvatore

A lawyer's advice to Steve Bannon not to respond to a congressional subpoena over the Jan. 6 insurrection means he couldn't have "willfully" flouted the subpoena and negates his conviction, the onetime Trump adviser has told the U.S. Supreme Court.

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Justices Told Presidential Firing Limits Rely On 'Soured' Logic

By Katie Buehler

President Donald Trump and a cadre of supporters have urged the U.S. Supreme Court to wipe out what remains of a 90-year-old ruling that empowers Congress to prohibit the president from firing certain agency officials at will, arguing the decision was flawed when originally issued and is now well past its prime. 

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US Chamber Sues To Block Trump's $100,000 H-1B Visa Fee

By Jared Foretek

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce sued the Trump administration on Thursday to block a planned increase in the cost of highly coveted H-1B visas, saying the proposed $100,000 fee would have a "devastating effect" on American businesses, particularly those in the tech, healthcare, higher education and manufacturing sectors.

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ABA Says Attys Must Be Clear About Neutrality In Mediations

By Emily Sawicki

Attorneys who agree to work as neutral, third-party mediators must make it explicitly clear that they are not advising or holding privilege with participants, the American Bar Association has warned in its latest ethics opinion.

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Brief

US Attorney Nominations For Missouri And Indiana Advance

By Courtney Bublé

The Senate Judiciary Committee voted to approve, along party lines, two U.S. attorney nominees for Missouri and Indiana on Thursday.

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Promo that reads Law360 Pulse Summer Associates Survey: Part 2 Promo that reads 2025 Regional Powerhouses

LAW FIRMS IN TODAY'S NEWS

Akeel & Valentine

Baughman Kroup

Boyden Gray

Brownstein Hyatt

Clarick Gueron

Coblentz Patch

Crowell & Moring

Cyrus D. Mehta & Partners

Forde & O'Meara

Fox Rothschild

Goldberg Kohn

Lauro & Singer

Loevy & Loevy

Lowell & Associates

McDermott Will & Schulte

Miller Shakman

Pryor & Bruce

Reed Smith

Ryan Law Partners

Saul Ewing

Schueler Dallavo

Silver Golub

Silverman Thompson

Skadden Arps

Skarzynski Marick

Steve Harvey Law

Vinson & Elkins

Wood Craig & Avery

COMPANIES IN TODAY'S NEWS

Alliance Defending Freedom

American Association of University Professors

American Bar Association

American Public Health Association

Americans for Prosperity Foundation

Anthropic PBC

Candela Corp.

Carnival Corp. & PLC

Chicago Cubs Baseball Club LLC

Clearview AI

Concord Music Group Inc.

Conduent Inc.

Invenergy LLC

LinkedIn Corp.

Maryland Clean Energy Center

Midcontinent Independent System Operator Inc.

Napleton Automotive Group

National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation

New York Law School

Princeton University

Protect Democracy Project Inc.

Southfield Capital

Southwest Airlines Co.

The Florida Bar

The New York Times Co.

U.S. Chamber of Commerce

University of Virginia

Washington Legal Foundation

YouTube Inc.

GOVERNMENT AGENCIES IN TODAY'S NEWS

California Attorney General's Office

California Department of Justice

City and County of San Francisco, California

Commodity Futures Trading Commission

Executive Office of the President

Federal Bureau of Investigation

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

Federal Reserve System

Federal Trade Commission

Florida Supreme Court

Illinois Attorney General's Office

Internal Revenue Service

Missouri Attorney General's Office

National Institutes of Health

National Labor Relations Board

National Security Council

New York Attorney General's Office

New York County District Attorney's Office

New York Supreme Court, New York County

Texas Judicial Branch

U.S. Attorney's Office

U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Maryland

U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Virginia

U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of California

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services

U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit

U.S. Department of Agriculture

U.S. Department of Energy

U.S. Department of Homeland Security

U.S. Department of Justice

U.S. Department of State

U.S. Department of the Treasury

U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia

U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut

U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland

U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina

U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia

U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California

U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois

U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Indiana

U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas

U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania

U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission

U.S. Senate

U.S. Supreme Court

United Nations